This book debunks the myth of the state as a large bureaucratic organization that can at best facilitate the creative innovation which happens in the dynamic private sector. Analysing various case studies of innovation-led growth, in particular examples from Silicon Valley, it describes the opposite situation, whereby the private sector only finds the courage to invest after the courageous state has made the high-risk investments. It argues that in the history of modern capitalism, the state has actively opened up new technologies and markets that private investors only later move into.